Feel like I should...

Feel like I should expound on this week.

It's been so epic, I'm not sure where to begin...

Let's work our way backwards beginning with what hasn't happened yet.

On Saturday, I'll be 30.
On Saturday, I won't be at the ladies retreat.
On Saturday, Avery is having an early birthday tea party with mostly family and some of the little girls from her class at school. The tea party is at our house - that's important because ...

On Friday, I will install a chair rail in Avery's bedroom, finish the touch up paint in Avery's bedroom and the living room, paint the other side of and re-install the 8 interior doors (half of which got painted Thursday), clean the house, finish shopping for A's presents, make cupcakes and sandwiches, wrap presents, and go have dinner with my old teacher friends at Cheddar's for my birthday. But first, I have to make sure the house is in tip top shape.

On Thursday, I painted one-side of 8 doors in our house, primed and painted a chair rail for Avery's bedroom, finished busting out our master bathroom shower and found it to be in worse shape than previously expected... Thought about crying.. a lot.

On Wednesday, finished painting stripes in A's bedroom (Painting stripes anywhere should be avoided at all cost. Just my opinion, but for what it's worth - don't do it.) , put the finishing touches on J's bedroom - most of which was painted the previous weekend, shopped for groceries, paid bills, went to a good friend's mother's funeral, she was too young...

On Tuesday, really thought about crying. I started painting stripes in Avery's room. Crazy. Why do stripes make her so happy? 6 colors of paint ladies and gentlemen - but it's soooooo cute and cheery! I also took a break on the master bathroom, which at this point looks like a total loss to me...

On Monday, I began demolition on our master bathroom, only to realize that the damage seems to be much more extensive than previously thought. Our master bedroom carpet (which is pink and, if you'll remember - I LOVE) is toast (rotten from leak in shower), as are much of the baseboards and sheet rock on the surrounding walls...

Monday also happened to be our 7th wedding anniversary.
We were so bombarded with life and all that it entails, we barely got to celebrate - but we went to dinner and it was sweet. And very us.

I am so thankful for him. I could be no happier than to share my life with this wonderful man. Many days, it's hard, just because life with kids and a mortgage and 'adult things' is so unpredictable - but more and more, I find myself endlessly thankful for all the turns that led me to him.
7 years. During that time, pretty much the ONLY thing that has stayed the same is the fact the we are still WE.

These last seven days pretty well round out 'normal' for us.
We work hard. We play hard. We live hard. We love hard.
We have lived and loved and enjoyed so much of each other.
And I am grateful.

So an epic week, no doubt. I am ready to finish up my 20's with a bang and look forward to a more 'normal' and less insane decade in my 30's. Please tell me things magically slow down in your 30's...

Don't ever do it! Don't.

My mom broke down and bought Avery this flip book of 500 or so tattoos.
Yes, my mom. Miss Tattoo, my mother, bought Avery a book filled with them.
Not only did she buy these profane things, but they are actually lifelong tattoos, must have been a typo on the package...
They NEVER GO AWAY.
Once you have a pink glitter flame tattoo wrapped around your daughter's little arm, there is no chisel, no chemical, no amount of scrubbing - nothing will get it off her.

We're talking WEEKS of temporary tattoo.
So right after I finally scraped the last bunch of tattoos off of her, Avery straightway begged my mom to apply yet another one.
Once the tat application had set, Avery came clean to my mom about how much I hate them...

(Disclaimer: I don't hate your tatoo. I don't even hate them in general. But there is something wrong with taking your little girl to church in a prissy little lacy dress with a black and pink flame job hanging just below the dainty sleeve...)

Here's the awful part: We're getting ready for a Halloween Carnival at Jaron's school and that second installment of tattoo is the only thing peeking out of Avery's costume, so I grab the nearest thing - a magic eraser.

Yes, yes I did.
And yes, yes it was a bad idea.

Indian sunburn ring a bell? Magnify that times 100.

Yeah. So just in case you're ever curious to see if a magic eraser might remove a permanent object (i.e. temporary children's tattoo that will not come off) from a child's skin...

Don't ever do it! Don't.

Conversations

My mom asks Avery, "What is your mom going to be for Halloween?"
She thinks a bit and quips, " A cooker, cuz that's real scary."

___________________________________________________

I bring out the medicine and Avery starts sniffling like crazy. Like to the point that I am sure she's having trouble breathing.
I realize she has seen the medicine bottle.
I say, "Avery, stop that or you'll hyperventilate."
She sniffles away.
I say, " You just want me to think you're very sick so I'll give you some of Bubba's medicine."
She just chuckles and grins this impossibly cute grin.
"Aww... Ya caught me...," and away she goes.

__________________________________________________

J: "I'm the smartest one in my class, " he says as we drive away from the school parking lot.
Me: "You are pretty smart, but there's no way to know who the smartest one really is. God gave each of us very different gifts and some days you're the one with the answers and other days, someone else seems to know them all."
J: "Nahhh... I'm the smartest."

Confidence is good. But this? Well, I fear we have created a monster...

Only in horseshoes and hand grenades...

Almost.

Nearly.

The kids have been without insurance since September 27th when Chris made the transition between jobs.
Their new insurance will be effective on November 1.

I have been praying and hand sanitizing like nobody's business, hoping we could make it to November without sickness.

Today we are home. Fever. Headache. Tummy ache. Boogers.
October 27.

We nearly made it.
:(

Pumpkin Tooth

(When I go back to to work, I promise to get the chord that magically makes the pictures from my camera land on this laptop.)

Because you have never seen anything as cute as my Pukpkin-toothed boy.

"It couldn't have happened at a better time of year, " he says as his tongue pushes right past the giga-gaps in his sparsely-toothed grin.
I smile back at him in utter admiration and say, "No baby, your pumpkin smile is just what we need this time of year!"

Just a few squishy 'baby squeezes' left on this kid, but I intend to savor every one!
Thank you God for the blessing of J.
My heart does back-flips for his pumpkin-tooth grin!

Because

Everybody's Crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man!

Oooooooo girls! If you could see my hottie walking out the door in his uniform each morning...
It'd make you wanna slap yo Mamma!

He's a byoot!

:)

How many times....

... can you title a post "life is good" and truly, truly mean it?

Seven years. I waited and prayed and hoped.

Now...

My husband is home at night. My husband is home at night.
He's here every night.

Life is so good.
God is so good.

Remember to praise your great God who loves you so!

Can it be?

It is sooooo wrong to accuse him of this, so I won't.

But...

If I didn't know better, I would swear to you that my husband has been 'fake' mopping the floor...

I come home to a mop bucket filled with water and a mop in the water - propped in the corner of the dining room.

And the floor?

Not mopped.

Is he trying to score points with a girl who knows what clean is?
Is he shooting for the placebo effect?

What is going on here?

I know, most of you would tell me to be happy that it appears as though he's making an effort.
And I am, When he does make the effort.

But this thing, which I am most certainly not accusing him of, is just sooo very like him.

Do you think it's possible?
Is he really just filling the bucket and setting it out to give off the appearance of helpfulness?

No! It can't be...

:)

For all you camera buffs out there.

I finally got a new camera!
Don't laugh, you professional photogs! It's a Canon PowerShot Elph (with a bunch of other numbers and descriptors) and it has a pretty quick capture time, which is what I need with a lightning bolt for a son and a 'head-turner' of a daughter!
It's nothing special, but it takes the pictures I want to take and I am completely thrilled!
(I think I started griping about the inadequacies of my old camera over a year ago, so this is a big moment for all of you... I will finally quit griping about it!)
Here are some shots:

I still need to learn the settings so the pictures aren't grainy. But they are pictures. And I can take some now. So it's a big improvement.

Sunday, September 27, 2009 - Day One.

In just a few short hours, Chris will walk through the door and take off his "lobster" shoes for the last time.

Wow. 11 years. Done.

The things we have been praying for, believing for, hoping for, dreaming for, for so long - and today's the day it all ends. Or begins? Yes, it's day one.

Of course, I am fighting back tears. I am ashamed to say that I can't really distinguish whether these tears are filled with joy or with fear.
Joy because everything we have He has planned for years culminates this very day. And it's absolutely wonderful, and scary...
Enter 'fear' that was neither expected nor invited.

How will he be? Will he have regrets? What will the unknown hold for him? For us? Will this work or will it blow up in our faces? Will he enjoy this new career path?

The last time Chris went through a career change was 'never.' It has always been this, in some form or fashion. This is a huge turnabout for him, and he has not always greeted change with open arms. He's a man in his mid 30's who is starting over...
As his wife, I want to be everything he needs, but I am not sure what that is yet.

I also have been very careful not to fret (in his presence) about what this change means for us financially. We have already received our final paycheck. And goodness, that felt so final!
I have no concrete idea when we will get paid, or how much it will be - I am stinking walking on water here, so to speak... :)

And if you know me, then you know what an incredible stretching experience this has been. Somehow, I feel better for it, that somehow - for once in my life - in the midst of all this stretching and trusting and praying and believing - I have actually turned loose of 'my plans' and let God do what only He can do.

Strangely and consequently, the overwhelming sensation that I feel welling up inside is peace. It's not so much a sensation though, because it's more than that. It's an absolute tangible thing. Peace that really, truly, God is in control. He is the Jehovah Jireh for the Ochoa's and has already chartered these waters. He has given us - His children - the privilege of walking out, for His glory, the path that was laid in the foundations of this earth - just for us. How incredible is that?

So just because I don't know what's next... I have peace.

May the God of all Peace rest squarely upon my husband's shoulders in the days that lie ahead. I pray that favor be the pavement upon which Chris walks, and may he find his completeness in your perfect love. When the weight of fear confronts him, may your strength hold him up, O God of Jacob. Amen.